But generally speaking, is Florida corruption getting worse? Last year, then-State Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton, and our Legislature illegally revoked St. Johns County’s land use decision-making powers as to one absentee developer’s 607-acre property in Switzerland community. Bennett, in his closing seconds as Senate President Pro Tempore, procured last-minute legislation eviscerating “local control,” which he supposedly cherished in slashing the Department of Community Affairs.

Debating Florida voter suppression laws, Bennett said voting “should not be easy.” It’s corruption that “should not be easy,” not citizen participation. It is our government. Let’s unite to halt legislative legerdemain and Tallahassee trickery. We must re-write our Florida Constitution and laws to make it easier to expose corruption and fight Big Money’s power. How?

“We, the People” can petition for a Florida Constitutional Convention: Florida has not had once since 1968. Florida’s Constitutional Convention will create stronger, indelible ethics and Sunshine laws (including posting government contracts online and protecting public rights to speak at meetings). It’s our government. It’s our money. Freedom works. When governments hear and heed informed citizens, we all save money (and save lives).

Bennett’s last-minute legislating flummery-frenzy proves we need more Sunshine, not less. It takes a village — and the hearts, minds and souls of all Floridians — to fight corruption.

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"Authorizes Commission on Ethics to acquire liens on real & personal property for certain fines imposed by final order of the commission; requires that automatic fines imposed by the commission for failure to comply with certain financial interests disclosure requirements be assigned as claims to the state & assigned to collection attorneys who shall reduce such claims to judgments."

I agree with Slavin on the Switzerland deal but I do not think the Florida Constitution should be re-written.

It would be helpful if the media reported on bills before they were passed so citizens could contact their representatives before the vote to voice their opinions. Unless you are doing the research on your own (a tedious task), you find out about bad legislation only after it has become law.

political control of the State for a while. May not stop the corruption but at least it will spread the wealth around more evenly. Why should all the political crooks in Florida prisons be repubs? Give the other side a shot at infamy.

Quit voting for people they KNOW are crooks, Scott, Carroll, Bennet, Thrasher, to name a few, would help a lot. Maybe if an honest person could get on a ballot. If your average schoolteacher truckdriver, waitress, farmer, nurse, and a token homeless person could run for office, there might be a lot less of it. As long as we keep letting lawyers, insurance slaesmen, and bankers run the joint, the worse its gonna get !! The founders didn't have have carreer politicians in mind.

"Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it."

It doesn't matter what party, which political vision, or the socio-economic background of someone who attains power and authority;left in office too long they will become corrupt.

The teacher indictments in Atlanta yesterday are just one more example, it's up to the people to maintain close watch on those in positions of authority and hold them accountable. Whether elected, appointed or hired to wear a badge, they should never be exalted and certainly not trusted.